No Man Gets Left Behind
by phantomgirl7338
Summary: AU, set during Out of Gas and after Series 4 of DW. When the engine is down and everyone's gone, it's up to the Doctor to come to Mal's rescue. Whether Mal will accept the Doctor's help or like it is to be seen. One-shot.


When Mal settled into the pilot's chair, his heart was heavy with the realization that he was completely alone. He hoped someone would find him, but as he struggled to keep his eyes open, Mal reflected on his life filled with adventure. Before he succumbed to slumber, his lips turned in a faint smile. What better place to die than on _Serenity_? The ship had become more of a home to him than Shadow ever had been. His family on the ship wasn't related to him by blood, but their bond was strong.

Mal prayed for the first time in years that his crew would find help. They deserved to live; they served him well. As for him, he could die in his sleep. During the war, soldiers would shift uncomfortably in the trenches, shivering from the cold, and talk about dying in their sleep painlessly and peacefully. Mal touched the chair beneath him, patting it like a father would pat his child's head. Yes, he knew that if he died, it would be where he began his life again: on _Serenity_.

* * *

The Doctor struggled to catch his breath. This was the third time he had narrowly escaped his death on an adventure. No one was there to stop him, not since Donna. The Doctor quickly flipped some switches and turned some knobs to get his mind off of the woman who had become his best friend. As he was about to travel somewhere far away from Earth and from any human, the TARDIS sounded a beeping noise.

The Doctor turned to the monitors, only to see that someone sent out a distress signal. Smiling at the thought of a new exciting activity, he set his beloved ship to the time and coordinates transmitted to him. With a familiar noise, the TARDIS landed. The Doctor grabbed his coat as he ran out the door, only to be greeted by a freezing cargo bay and a depleting amount of oxygen. He wandered around the ship that he identified as Firefly-class but found no one until he came across the ship's bridge. There he saw a man covered in a blanket who appeared to be dead.

* * *

As Mal came to, he noticed that his ship was still freezing and that he was being pulled up. The latter was a fact he put all of his attention to. When his mind finally cleared, he realized that the man trying to help him up was not a member of his crew.

"Who the hell are you and how'd you get on my gorram ship?" Mal hoped he sounded threatening, but with his teeth chattering together from the cold and his mind still foggy from his sleep, the Doctor just breathed a sigh of relief instead of fearing for his life.

"Good, you're up. You need to quickly get to my ship; there's air and heat there."

Mal got up quickly and reached for the gun in his holster, the blanket that was keeping him warm falling to the floor. _Gorramit._

"I ain't goin' nowhere until you tell me how the _hell_ you got on here!" Mal stared the man down, but he didn't seem phased by it, just determined.

The skinny man in a suit and notably brown coat just got near Mal's face without worrying about the gun. "Look, I need you to trust me. You will die on this ship. If you want to live, you'll come with me. If not, I will let you stay here and freeze to death. What will it be?" Mal continued to stare at the man. He realized there was an accent in his voice similar to Badger's, but cleaner and more proper. After looking the stranger in the eye for a few seconds, he simply nodded and put the gun back. The stranger's face then broke out into a huge grin. "Brilliant! I'm the Doctor. It's best if you don't talk though, you'll use up more oxygen and that isn't good." He removed his coat and handed it to Mal. "Here. You need to warm up some. I don't think it'll fit you, and it'd be nice if you don't rip it; I do like that coat. Just put it around your shoulders, there you go!"

He was about to continue but Mal cut him off as he navigated them through the ship. "What was that about savin' oxygen?"

"Oh right, I tend to ramble. C'mon, then. Almost there!" When the two finally made it to the cargo bay, Mal noticed the blue box that hadn't been there before. He walked towards it until he was right in front of it.

"'Police public call box'? Are you with the Alliance? 'Cause if'n you are, I can die on my own without your help. I was doin' it just fine too."

The Doctor just rolled his eyes. "Yep, Alliance, just as I thought. This must be the 26th century, then. Am I right?" Mal nodded slowly. "Right, well I'm not part of the Alliance. I'm just a traveler. I found your distress signal, so I came out. Thing is, my ship tends to show up _in_ places and not always outside of them. Sorry about that. Now, in we go!" The Doctor was about to open the door to the TARDIS, but Mal stopped him.

"You think there's enough oxygen in _that_ thing? I bet I got more in my closet than you got in there!" The Doctor just ignored him and pushed the door open, letting a rush of warmth and oxygen hit Mal before they both entered. Mal breathed deeply, feeling his body warm up all over and his lungs expand with the air. When he at last paid attention to what was before him, he turned around and went outside, looking around the box. "What in the…?" He felt all four corners of the box before going back inside. "What are you playin' at, Doc?"

The Doctor smiled at him. "I usually like when other people say it, but let me guess: it's bigger on the inside?" Mal touched the inside, running his hand on the railing.

"Uh, yeah. How'd you do that?" The Doctor opened his arms to gesture at the ship.

"This is the TARDIS. It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's a time-and-space travelling machine. Pretty brilliant, am I right?" The Doctor beamed, hoping to see awe on this new man's face.

Mal just let out a "Huh," and continued to move around. Finally, he spoke again: "They predicted this would happen. People told stories of alien invasions an' time traveling technology an' the like before on Earth-that-was. Never thought we'd see it again, but I guess it found us."

The Doctor fished around in his pockets for his sonic screwdriver. "Well, the Shadow Proclamation said that once the humans found a new solar system to live on and they made each planet habitable, everyone had to wait three centuries before they could even get near you lot. So you've got until about the time of your great-grandchildren to worry about them. Just me now," the Doctor finished with a wave and a toothy grin. With an, "Aha!" he found his screwdriver, and it buzzed until he found the right setting. "Right then, off to see what's wrong with your Firefly!" The Doctor began to stride off, but Mal stopped him.

"It's _Serenity_ and the catalyzer's shot. I got me a great mechanic, but she said our old one won't work no more." Mal thought what he said made sense, but the Doctor just looked at him in shock until he finally smiled and then laughed heartily.

"No way! You're from _Serenity_? That must make _you_ Captain Malcolm Reynolds! Oh, this is _brilliant!_" Mal looked confused. "Oh, it hasn't happened yet. _Ooh_, that means I better fix your ship so it_ can _happen. And you're crew's not here! Aw, what a shame! Meeting the little crew that changed _everything_? That would be brilliant! You must've sent them away, right? Just like Malcolm Reynolds to protect his crew! Right then. Catalyzer, you said?" Mal nodded, but felt less at ease than he had before in this man's presence. "Hm, I don'thave one of those," the Doctor started again and it took Mal a second to realize that the man who was once beside him was now searching all over the ship.

"Then maybe you should just leave. I gotta say, thanks for the help an' all, but I don't feel too comfortable with your knowledge about me and my crew, let alone this crazy stuff you got goin' on in here." Mal then removed his gun from the holster again. "So, if you'll kindly leave my ship, I'll go die in peace."

The Doctor stood up, his eyes suddenly dark. "I don't carry a gun on me, _ever._ And I will _not_ have violence on my ship. I can help you, Captain, if you'll let me. But I _will_ let you die out there if-"

"No you won't," Mal cut him off. "I've seen men like you before. Maybe your brown coat ain't from fighting in my war, but you fought in some war or another. I can see it in your eyes. And from what I can tell, you lost. You lost lots o' people too. And you ain't about to lose another." The Doctor's face never changed. "Now, I got a crew waitin' for their heroic an' dashin' captain to call them back. You gonna help me?"

"If you put me gun away, I might consider it." Mal placed the gun back, and the Doctor continued. "Tell me, are you always this indecisive? First you trust me, and then you get afraid once I know who you are. Oh, but it's not my knowledge of you you're afraid of. It's my knowledge of your crew. And quite a crew it is! Especially that River Tam. Such a shame that she-"

Mal cut the Doctor off with a punch to the face, causing the taller man to fall on the TARDIS' floor. The Doctor finally stood up after rotating his jaw. "Right, I _need_ to stop rambling. Sorry about that."

Mal nodded his forgiveness, but was still weary of this man's knowledge of River. "So, how can you help us out, since you insist we got somethin' to do later? If this thing travels in time, can we just tell me to pick up a shiny, new catalyzer when I'm on Persephone?" Mal smiled at his clever plan, but the Doctor shook his head.

"No, we can't go and change your timeline. It's not safe. We can go there now and pick one up so you can replace it, though. And just think of it: I would have helped the crew of _Serenity_!"

Mal just rolled his eyes. "Just get to movin' on it. That crew you insist on talkin' so much about isn't off much better than me."

"Right then! Allons-y!" The Doctor set the coordinates and pulled a lever before Mal could question his strange vocabulary. "Hold on!" With a whirling noise unlike one Mal had ever heard before, the TARDIS shook and trembled before finally stopping a few seconds later.

"What the hell happened?" Mal straightened himself while glaring at the Doctor.

"Just see for yourself," the suited man said with a smirk. Mal strode to the door and opened it, only to be greeted by the hustle and bustle of Persephone. He was speechless while standing in the doorway, so the Doctor walked past him to the ground outside the ship. "Well? Are you coming?"

Mal quickly closed the TARDIS door behind him to catch up with the strange man. "No offense, Doc, but your box-ship thing don't exactly fit in…"

"Don't worry about that. It's got a perception filter, so people will barely notice it. Now, you have to lead the way. Last time I was here, this planet was being invaded, but that's going to be after your time."

Mal tried to ignore that last confusing comment as he went to the junkyard and asked for a catalyzer. He sighed, having to pay more money than he'd like for a part, but he quickly sobered up, remembering what could happen if he never got this part or received help from the Doctor. Once the part, which he paid extra for because it was in near-new condition, was in his hands, he ran back with the Doctor.

"Always love a good run," the man said, but Mal ignored it along with the other nonsense and ramblings that came out of the Doctor's mouth. Once they were safely inside the TARDIS, the Doctor went to the controls and twisted and turned varies things on the console with care. As if he was sensing Mal's impatience, the Doctor explained, "You see, I have to make sure we get back _after_ we left, or else there could be more trouble and I think you've had enough of that for now. Then again, trouble never leaves you, Malcolm Reynolds," the Doctor looked up and Mal realized he was wearing glasses.

Mal grunted. "Just get me back home safely, Doc." The Doctor mumbled something about unfriendly humans before the ship lurched again made the noise Mal hear earlier. With a sigh of relief at the ship's silence and stillness, he went to go out with his part.

"Wait," the Doctor started, "I don't think there's much oxygen left, if any. I've got a suit, though. I'll connect it to the TARDIS so you can get to the engine." Once Mal was suited up, the Doctor used his sonic to connect the air line to a port in his ship. Mal shot him a questioning look through the suit's glass, but the Doctor just said, "Sonic screwdriver. After your time," before Mal rolled his eyes and left.

When he stepped out, he felt the temperature drop slightly, even with the suit on. His steps were slow in the uncomfortable suit, and the only sound he could hear was his breathing until a loud alarm went off along with an announcement: "Life support failure. Check oxygen levels at once. Jeo-shung yong-jur goo-jang. Jien-cha yong-chi gong yin." Mal quickened his pace, becoming wearing that the air line wouldn't reach the far end of the ship to the engine room. When he finally reached the doorway, he let out a sigh of relief before walking in to get to work.

He was about to attach the part, but he realized that something was pulling him back. "_Gos se_," he mumbled. His mind raced, wondering what to do, but with the thought that his crew will be out of air too if he doesn't get to working fast enough as he wasn't sure how long he was gone, Mal took in a deep breath. While trying to keep his air in and the part safely in his hands, Mal shrugged his way out of the suit and over to the engine. His body shook with the cold, but with trembling hands, he finally got the working catalyzer in, and with a smile, he got the engines back on, the turbines spinning and the alarms turning off.

Mal breathed in the oxygen the ship began circulating and started to feel the heating as well. He was about to return the suit to the Doctor, but he remembered his crew. With a speed Mal only used for running from fights, he made it to the bridge and pressed the red button Wash left for him. Shortly after, Wash's voice came through followed by his face. Mal tried his best not to grin at his pilot. "Your miracle come through?"

"And then some. I'll tell you when you get back here. How's Zoe?"

Wash cheered at the news, not bothering to hold back like his captain. "She's good and awake. She was arguing with us to turn around too. You were right on time."

"Always good to hear. Update Inara on the situation. I gotta take care of some captain-y stuff." With that, Mal gathered the suit that he left in the engine room and went to the cargo bay. He found the Doctor snooping around. Mal cleared his throat and the Doctor stopped what he was doing but didn't look guilty. "Thank you," Mal said with a slight smile. "You might be plenty weird and I ain't rightly sure if you're even human, but you helped. And that's enough for me." The Doctor smiled as went into the TARDIS to put the suit away. Mal followed. "You wanna meet the famous _Serenity_ crew before we do whatever you say we're gonna do?"

The Doctor's smile faded some. "I don't know if I should. I don't really do domestic." Mal clapped him on the back and pushed him back onto _Serenity_ in time for one of the shuttles to find its way back.

"Look, Doc. You might know more than me with your fancy ship and all, but we ain't that different. I know that look in your eyes 'cause I've had it in mine for years. And if'n there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's no man gets left behind. You didn't leave me behind, so I ain't leavin you either, not until every member of my crew gets to thank you all proper-like. I owe my life to you, we all do. You don't seem like the one who feeds on thank you's and dinners, but you're gettin' some anyway." Mal closed the TARDIS' door, signaling the end of his monologue, and before the Doctor could reject again (not that he wanted to after that speech), four members of the crew came down the stairs, and the other shuttle returned as well.

For once, the Doctor stayed long enough to receive the thanking of a lifetime from the strangest and friendliest crew he'd ever met. After he left the makeshift family he'd never forget and after he left alone in the TARDIS, the Doctor felt anything but lonely.


End file.
